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Second Round Playoff Preview

Hello hockey fans and welcome to the blog! This posting will serve as our usual “show “summary” post for our fourth episode of the podcast. After a very successful first round pair of previews and picks that saw Mark hit on six out of 8 and The Buffalo Kid nail it at a five and three pace, we look ahead to the second round with the hope our luck holds up.

Just to do a quick recap, The Kid had winners with the Rangers, Caps, Bolts, Wild and Flames and Marked flipped on the Senators at the last minute adding Les Habitants to the winner list on his side of the ledger.

We started the podcast looking at the Rangers and Capitals series. Buffalo had the hardest time with this one out of the four remaining series. Tom ultimately decided that Coach Trotz has the Caps finally playing playoff hockey. He noted that they only allowed the Isles 11 shots on goal in a dominating, shut down performance in their Game 7 victory. Mark goes the other way here, calling the goalie match up for he Rangers, and home ice carries New York into their second straight conference finals.

Next bouncing to the West we looked at the Anaheim Vs. Calgary series. Mark thinks that the Ducks are just too deep for the Flames to get past, despite their great young talent and speed. The Ducks defense corps is their deepest in years with Vatanen and Lindholm maturing into good solid two way defensemen. Tom agrees, and cites the depth and experience of the Ducks. Both take the Ducks.

Moving back to the East, Montreal Vs. Tampa both Tom and Mark end up Riding the Lightning. The season series was so lopsided, going 5-0-0 to Tampa Bay. Mark thinks Tampa Bay has been waiting for this matchup since being swept by the Canadiens last year, and will be playing angry. Tom calls the depth of Tampa Bay’s scoring to the fore, citing Tyler Johnson’s three two goal games against Detroit. If Montreal pays too much attention to Stamkos, there are others that can hurt them. Bishop being healthy, while not Carey Price, should be good enough.

Lastly, we head West for what might be the most fun series to watch, Minnesota and Chicago. Tom straight up calls out former Sabre Thomas Vanek to stand up and be counted. If he can regain his scoring touch, maybe the Wild can pull the upset. Mark loves the way the Wild have been playing for two straight months.,but also thinks the Hawks might have the pedigree to get past the Wild into another Conference Finals.

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